Posts Tagged ‘diplomatic’

The Security Council statement, read to the media, “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in New Delhi, India, aimed at Israel’s diplomatic personnel, which resulted in injuries to diplomatic personnel and civilians, and the recent attempted terrorist attack in Tbilisi, Georgia.”

The Council also “reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivations, whenever and by whomsoever committed.”

In an interview with Time Magazine, US President Barack Obama listed those foreign leaders that he considers friends and have helped him implement diplomatic initiatives.

“The friendships and the bonds of trust that I’ve been able to forge with a whole range of leaders is precisely, or is a big part of, what has allowed us to execute effective diplomacy,” said Obama.

The list included Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not mentioned.

“I think that if you ask them, Angela Merkel or Prime Minister Singh or President Lee or Prime Minister Erdogan or David Cameron would say, ‘We have a lot of trust and confidence in the President. We believe what he says. We believe that he’ll follow through on his commitments. We think he’s paying attention to our concerns and our interests,'” Obama added.

Germany has just raised the level of representation of the PA/PLO delegation in Berlin to “Diplomatic Mission” headed by an Ambassador. This was announced Wednesday by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle while visiting in Ramallah. The change in diplomatic status may be related to Merkel’s several recent condemnations of Israel’s settlement policy.

France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark and the UK have already elevated the PA/PLO delegations in their countries to “Diplomatic Missions”.

In a candid interview with the National Journal on Thursday, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey said that current US efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is effective, and that a military operation would be “premature”.

“I do think the path we’re on—the economic sanctions and the diplomatic pressure—does seem to me to be having an effect. I just think that its premature to be deciding that the economic and diplomatic approach is inadequate.”

Dempsey was speaking after his return from a visit to Israel, where he was reported to have cautioned against a military strike against Iran. “My intervention with them was not to try to persuade them to my thinking or allow them to persuade me to theirs, but rather to acknowledge the complexity and commit to seeking creative solutions, not simple solutions,” he said,

In the same interview, Dempsey said that he and his Israeli counterparts argued their positions “aggressively,” but conceded that “We [the US] have to acknowledge that they … see that threat differently than we do. It’s existential to them.

King Abdullah of Jordan has insinuated that relations between Israel and Jordan may suffer if Israel does not facilitate progress with the Palestinians in Jordan, according to the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper.

The report stated that Abdullah was able to convince PA president Mahmoud Abbas to hold discussions in Amman by intimating that Jordan would consider diplomatic sanctions if Israel failed to “demonstrate it is willing to make significant concessions which will allow the Palestinian leadership to justify their return to the negotiating table.”